David Zauner, right, accepts his boy basketball coach of the year award at The Macomb Daily basketball awards banquet in March 2011. Also pictured is 2010-11 girls coach of year Sam Hines of Fitzgerald High School in Warren. (MACOMB DAILY FILE PHOTO)

An East Detroit High School teacher who rescued a drowning boy from the school pool says he was the target of a “reign of terror and retaliation” by a school official for cooperating with Eastpointe police in the investigation.

David Zauner, a physical education teacher for 18 years, says in a lawsuit filed in May that he was wrongly disciplined, threatened, harassed and retaliated against for being truthful with law enforcement about his efforts to warn schools officials about the lifeguard credentials and abilities of Johnathan Sails prior to the drowning of KeAir Swift last November.

Sails was not a certified lifeguard Nov. 8 when he headed a swimming class as a substitute teacher and ninth-grader KeAir went under water in the deep end of the pool for several minutes before being pulled out by Zauner. KeAir, 14, died four days later.

Zauner asks for “millions of dollars” in a whistle-blower lawsuit filed in Macomb County Circuit Court against Assistant Principal and Athletic Director John Rizzo and East Detroit Public Schools.

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Zauner says in the complaint that the defendants’ actions caused a loss of “career opportunities” and “earnings and earnings capacity.”

Zauner, who is also the varsity boys basketball coach, also claims “intentional infliction of emotional distress” as Rizzo and other school officials “intentionally and maliciously conspired to retaliate against, falsely accuse, harass, disparage, ridicule, insult, abuse, offend and emotionally devastate” him. He calls the conduct “extreme and outrageous, intentional or reckless.”

An attorney for the school district could not be reached for comment Monday.

It’s not the first civil lawsuit filed in connection with the case. KeAir’s mother, Lakisha Swift, and his estate, sued the school district and several employees. An insurance company also has filed a lawsuit.

Sails, meanwhile, was criminally charged with involuntary manslaughter for which he faces a July 14 pretrial hearing in circuit court in Mount Clemens. Manslaughter is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Students said Sails reacted slowly to their warnings that KeAir was drowning after jumping off a diving board, police said. Sails first went to a locker room presumably to change his clothes before jumping into the water but exited the pool quickly, saying he couldn’t swim, according to police. He was the first adult to get into the water. Zauner arrived moments later after hearing a call on a radio and rushing from an office.

Zauner told police that less than a month before the incident, he warned Rizzo and Zauner’s immediate supervisor, Mark Weigand, to check Sails’ lifeguard credentials and that Sails “had no control” over the swimming class he was supervising, he said in his statement to police. New teacher James Reed gave the same warning to Rizzo and Weigand, according to the lawsuit

But Rizzo made a joke in response and later told Zauner that Sails told him he was certified, Zauner said.

“If Rizzo had allocated approximately one minute of his time” to check on Sails’ credentials at the principal’s office, “he would have discovered that Sails did not have his lifeguard certification,” Zauner said.

Zauner claims he told police that shortly after the incident, the school district ordered new safety equipment for the pool area that was not present when KeAir went under water. Zauner says Rizzo tried to “cover-up” the purchases to “keep it a secret” from police.

“If such safety items and equipment had been in the pool area at the time of KeAir’s drowning, it would have substantially increased the likelihood that KeAir’s life could have been saved,” he says.

Rizzo “became further upset and even more angry at plaintiff for his additional participation and assistance in the police investigation,” Zauner said.

The lawsuit accuses Rizzo of creating at “bogus paper trail” of supposed wrongdoing by Zauner in order to suspend or fire him from the teaching and coaching positions.

Zauner said Rizzo “embarked upon his campaign to retaliate” in February when he was advised to resign, threatened with firing and reprimanded for conducting a basketball practice on a half-day of school without permission that school officials said was required.

Less than a month later, Rizzo placed Zauner on probation related to the coaching position. In 12 categories for the “performance appraisal,” Zauner gained “satisfactory” in eight, and unsatisfactory in four.

On March 19, Rizzo “continued his reign of terror and retaliation” by placing Zauner on an “extremely onerous individual development plan” that includes 22 requirements on him. The plan warned that “continued failure to meet your professional obligations or any violations of the IDP could lead to further disciplinary action, which may include dismissal.”

Zauner says Rizzo called him a “f------ idiot” in front of a school security guard and students.

Zauner says two other school employees, ninth-grade Assistant Principal Nicole Kirby and former principal Mary Finnigan, also were the target of similar actions by school officials in connection with the incident and aftermath. Kirby, who is named in the other two civil lawsuits, and Finnigan hired attorneys, he said. Finnigan has since left the district for a job in another school district.

He says that after he and other employees met with Assistant County Prosecutor William Cataldo to prepare for their testimony at the May 8 preliminary examination in 38th District Court, they were forced to attend a session with the school district’s civil attorneys on the pretense of furthering preparing them for the criminal hearing, Instead, Zauner says he was “ambushed” at the meeting by school district attorney Randal Brown about his cooperation with police.

“The purpose of the meeting was to threaten, bully, harass and intimidate (Zauner) against cooperating and further with the police investigation or to take a position adverse to defendants in the Swift civil lawsuit,” he said.

He said Brown “instructed and directed” him to answer questions at the preliminary hearing “in a certain manner that was most beneficial” to the school district and officials in the Swift lawsuit.

Brown said Monday he could not discuss the case.

Zauner also seeks punitive damages and damages for emotional, physical and mental distress, and lost wages and potential wages, among others.